


It Can’t Be That Simple

by WithPatienceComesPeace



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Drama, Gen, Humor, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), don't say anything just, sip that tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27881550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WithPatienceComesPeace/pseuds/WithPatienceComesPeace
Summary: The Officer’s Academy’s Duscuri math professor discovers that tea with Dorothea and Ferdinand is an absolute disaster.An excerpt fromThe Lion and the Lotus.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault & Original Character, Ferdinand von Aegir & Dorothea Arnault, Ferdinand von Aegir & Original Character
Kudos: 8
Collections: Excerpts from The Lion and The Lotus





	It Can’t Be That Simple

**Author's Note:**

> An excerpt from [The Lion and the Lotus](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27672283/chapters/67717684). More oneshots from me every day through December 2020.

Within fifteen minutes, Parvati learned that tea with Dorothea and Ferdinand was an absolute disaster. They took a spot at an open table in one of the courtyards, and Ferdinand had brought out his own tea set. As they waited for the tea to finish steeping, Parvati found herself quite literally in the middle of an argument.

“Flattery?” Ferdinand, sitting to her left, was saying. “No, I was not… There you go with that attitude again. Why do you reserve such cold treatment for me, and me alone? Do you hate me, Dorothea?” Here Parvati’s eyes bugged out. “Or have you some other reason to avoid my company?” Ferdinand continued.

“I underestimated you. I assumed your noble upbringing had dulled your perception,” said Dorothea, sitting on Parvati’s right. “But you got it right on your first try. I hate you.”

Parvati focused on her steeping chamomile tea, thinking, _Why am I here why am I here why am I here why am I here why am I here_ —

“Huh. I was right,” said Ferdinand. “Might I ask why you find me so despicable? I can scarcely guess.”

“Don’t waste another minute thinking about it,” Dorothea responded.

“That will not do. I do not think you would hate a person for no reason.”

“Hm, perhaps. How’s this? If you can guess why, I’ll let you know if you’re right. The brains of us common folk are _so simple_ , it should be pretty easy for a big-shot noble to sort out.”

 _Woooow!_ thought Parvati. Dorothea had some serious ovaries. Parvati could never imagine saying something like that. She was almost jealous. But she was mostly pretending to be invisible.

“Very well, I cannot walk away from a challenge. I have no choice but to chance a guess,” said Ferdinand. “You are always making fun, calling me a “big shot” and so forth. Perhaps you think all nobles are… No, it could not be that simple.”

“Oh? What can’t be that simple?” Dorothea said with a bit a laugh.

Parvati sipped her tea.

“Please,” Ferdinand pleaded, “will you not give me a clue?”

“What do you think, Professor?” asked Dorothea. “What should we give him as a clue?”

Time stopped in this moment for Parvati.

On the left hand, was Ferdinand, the son of her employer, and who she pinned the highest of hopes to make her future sponsor.

On the right hand was Dorothea, a talented, brilliant commoner with whom Parvati truly aligned, and had privately earmarked to lift.

Said commoner was also a brilliant smooth-talker who had just effortlessly co-opted Parvati to presumably be on her side.

Both students looked at her.

How was she going to get through this? If she did this wrong, she might lose the respect of one of them — if not both.

She chose both, apparently, because she said “What?” with a mouthful of tea and it all came dribbling out of her mouth. “Excuse me,” she said, mortified. She pressed a napkin along the wet spots on the bosom of her turtleneck, realized that was weird, went to put down her teacup, realized maybe she could “spill” her tea and be done with this, failed to make _that_ look like she wasn’t knocking it over on purpose, then said in a strangled voice, “Oh no, I have no more tea. How…sad. I must go. I have to find Catherine.”

Her students watched the whole thing start to finish, speechless. They let her carry the bleeding mass of her wounded pride on the wet spots on her bosom as she scurried away. _At least it’s black,_ she kept thinking about the turtleneck, trying to console herself. No one would see the wet spots. Meanwhile, she hoped she never would have to see those students again.

Parvati had no idea her evening was going to get worse from there.

**Author's Note:**

> More Dorothea becoming an absolute badass in [The Lion and the Lotus](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27672283/chapters/67717684)!


End file.
